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Tristen went to a nearby terminal station to make an exchange to his Pokémon party and started to try to think as to what he might end up coming across once. Considering that he was heading towards a somewhat marshy area, then followed that up to a beach trip for lunch, water types might be on the agenda. Nothing that Tristen himself couldn’t handle if push came to shove, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared a little bit. He needed to train other Pokémon like Wimpod, so the bug was staying around. He thought about keeping Litten around as well, but the cat probably wouldn’t agree too much with the beach. Probably Rookidee wouldn’t be too bad of an idea though. Tristen did want to bring an Electric type with him all the same. Tristen wishes that he could use Electabuzz right about now, but unfortunately Tristen hadn’t worked out his Shadow affliction as of yet. Zebstrika was also not going to care too much about the terrain regardless where he was at, which left only one. Galvantula was getting brought out, which might or might not gel too well with Spewpa. At this point, with Spewpa being the way it has been as of late, it’s going to have to deal. As much he wanted to keep Mienshao around, Tristen felt it was high time to have some other Pokémon with him now. After giving thanks, he would make one final swap in. He’d get Xatu, Tristen’s first Pokémon, out. Dragonite would stay with Tristen for now in case all else fails. He was going into unfamiliar territory after all.

From the terminal he would go on to get breakfast served for Spewpa and the rest of his party. Pokémon familiar to Spewpa was around, others not so much. Spewpa apparently was more intent on still being the spoiled brat at the proverbial table as everyone else started to have their meals. Dragonite and Xatu would look down towards the temperamental bug, staring at the bug with a bit of disdain. Rookidee and Galvantula couldn’t really bring themselves to care about how spoiled the bug was acting; frankly Rookidee was wondering if there was a bigger breakfast being served. The only one that was truly upset was Wimpod and was left to wonder if Spewpa was going to let off some surprise Stun Spore out in breakfast out of spite. Spewpa was a whole other Pokémon and not the sentimental, caring bug Scatterbug was. Wimpod almost didn’t really eat anything this morning because of how Spewpa had been.

Once the entourage was fed, Tristen recalled the Pokémon for now. He would make his way off towards a station where he could get a Squakabilly Taxi. Apparently the closest spot he could get to was directly on the beach that was located adjacent to the flat marsh area since there was a Pokémon Center there. Tristen would take the flight and end up waiting around for the trip to end. From up in the sky, Tristen looked down towards the ground below, trying to get a view of the area. He ended up realizing that since he wasn’t on any mission or just simply the fact that he had no one else on the trip with him like his adoptive parents or Fela for instance…these Squakabilly taxi rides are…a little lonely. No one to talk to. It was just him left to stare at the serene scenery from above. Tristen was trying to humor the argument that he wasn’t used to having this kind of freedom with his life, but it left him to wonder if this sort of thing was it? He didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe this little personal training session to learn Agility was him still trying to cope in some way. It wasn’t as if Snagem was gone, though. He was bound to go back at some point or another whenever everyone else, presumably, passes through whatever they decided to be a part of. Tristen was left to his thoughts for the trip.

The taxi would eventually land. Tristen disembarked with his things and took a look around the area. Beach for miles. And the strip of sand and sun did have all manner of people around. This was apparently a go to spot, probably because of the Pokémon Center he landed by. That said, he wasn’t going to go out swimming. Instead, he took a look at his SNAG to get his bearings using the map once more then started his way off towards the flatlands just a ways away. It was time to try to get to work…

Tristen left the beach for now and made his way north of the Pokémon center. Off the beach and onwards to the marshy flatlands. It wouldn’t take too long from the beach to get there as he would find. Just cleared the hill that separated the beach from the mainland and he was there. It was what he come to expect from a place like this. A lot of room to roam and probably a lot of Pokémon not out in the open but in the various super-small bodies of water or dens about the area. Apart from the occasional Flamigo standing on one foot and sunbathing there at a water’s edge, minding their own business.

He would go around to find a spot to get to work at, picking up a couple of long sticks along the way. They were going to be makeshift markers for him. Point A and Point B, trying to recreate the segment of running track that he was on when he tried to learn it from Matteo earlier in the week. As he planted one into the ground and started to walk a distance away, he started to try to think just what he needed to do. When he tried it earlier this week, despite his best efforts, he was still wildly discharging electricity everywhere instead of making use of it as he needed to. It was a massive issue in control. Now that Tristen thought about it, controlling electricity had always been an issue with him. It was why using Spark for example was so comfortable to him, he didn’t even need to worry about where it went, just along that he lit himself up to light someone else up, which made the likes of a Thunderbolt attack rather jarring when he first started to try to learn it. He had to not only crank out a lot of electricity to get to that kind of level of power, effectively strain himself, he had to make sure wherever that bolt went, it was where Tristen wanted it. It took seemingly forever for him to even get to that point, or at least how he felt it. And even then, just before becoming a Manetric hybrid, he could only pop off roughly three to four shots at best, a minor improvement to the two at max he used to be able to do to start off with. While after evolving it was a bit better, at least able to fire off at least double of what he used to do as an Electrike, even he had to admit there was some improvement to be had there. Maybe learning Agility could help in it? Tristen could only hope.

Tristen walked at least a good two hundred meters and planted the second stick into the ground. He had his start and finish line. He then stretched a bit, and as he did, he continued to try to figure out how to start this training session. There really wasn’t a good place to start that he could think of. He needed a lot of things to happen. He needed the control to be able to gain speed. He potentially needed electricity to regulate the stress at moving at those speeds. He needed to be able to keep up with that speed when he does so and not panic or get sick or anything of that sort when he actually gets there. Tristen just shook his head…just one thing at a time. Just try to get the speed to begin with, he thought. Work on what might need to be a priority later.

He stopped stretching out then looked over towards the first stick he planted, then down towards his feet. He tensed up a bit, flexed his toes, flexed his hands. He felt the electricity course through him. Sparks flickered off his feet randomly as he tried to experiment with his electricity standing still. As he could recall, he got slightly faster than his best running speed, but there was a lot of things going wrong. He was under the assumption that he couldn’t get the rhythm or the right amount of electricity consistently, which may have been true, but he was also under the assumption that was not all there was to it. He would just try to figure it out from there…

He got into position, seeing the ‘Point B’ in the distance, took a couple of breaths, then started to sprint off towards the stick. Tristen started to spark about as he dashed towards the other one, trying to make the proverbial lightning strike twice, get that minor improvement. Once again, it was difficult. Timing was all manner of off on many steps. He wasn’t even sure the amount of electricity discharged was right for that matter. Or if he even was discharging it right at all. It wasn’t long until he cleared that two-hundred-meter span and crossed the proverbial finish line.

Tristen would run back and forth between the two mounted sticks in the ground at least three or four times before he ended up having to take a break. He was out of breath, already feeling drained of electricity. He knew he wasn’t doing it right. His speed improvement was negligible. He couldn’t write the theory off yet though in the back of his mind. He had to try to get it right and do it consistently before he had to try other things. This wasn’t sustainable, however, Tristen noted. But it was all he had to go on right now. If he had to take a lot of breaks to recuperate, so be it.

For a good chunk of the morning, Tristen would repeat the process of running between his designated points then stopping for a rest, chugging a large bottle of water and trying to assess if he was actually on the right track as he did so. He thought for a point there, he was getting the rhythm down, but at this point, he wasn’t sure. And it got to the point that the more breaks he started to take, the longer he ended up having to take them. He was so profoundly tired. As he checked his electricity, he had a hard time getting a few sparks to come from his own hand, let alone his two legs. This felt as if a bad omen for Tristen. He didn’t have the capacity to keep trying like this despite his best efforts. He was discharging far more than he was naturally making. Truthfully, it was a bit irritating. While he knew that he wasn’t getting it in a day, or even in a week probably, his attempts were extremely limited. He felt he had to make every attempt count, make progress on every attempt and he didn’t want to call upon say Galvantula to give him a recharge. He needed more guidance. He needed a hint. Anything.

Tristen would try to make another few attempts once he was able then finally decided to call it for lunch. He trudged off away from his makeshift training ground and made his way back towards the beach. He’d be back just in a little bit. Once back at the beach, Tristen made a quick stop at the Pokémon mart to pick up a few things then made his way off towards the beach, picking out a spot to put out the collapsable table given to trainers by the academy as well as Uva House tableware, then finally released his party out onto the sands, including Spewpa. As soon as he was done, Tristen sat down at the table. “Hey guys, just…give me a few minutes to recover here. I had a long training day so far that’s not quite over, but if you want, you guys can have fun here on the beach, okay?”

The Pokémon looked around, Dragonite and Rookidee seemed to be good with it. Wimpod was eyeing the sea close by and thought about going for a swim himself in the cool waters. Xatu without hesitation fluttered up on the other side of the table and perched to stare out towards the west as if he was waiting on the sunset to come. Galvantula looked around the area then started to dig about in the sands. It did seem as if he wanted to play around for a bit. All that left was Spewpa. Tristen was left wondering just how much the bug wasn’t going to really go along with anything going on, considering yesterday evening and this morning.

Tristen managed to get settled for a moment, finally working the energy back to get lunch ready for the Pokémon. Dragonite went out into the shallow waters, Wimpod shortly afterwards. In a rare sight, Wimpod was actually okay around the large dragon. It even looked like they were trying to play with each other. It was progress, Tristen figured. Rookidee perched on Xatu’s head, who he himself was still perched on the table, unmoving. The rigid posture, unflinching movement, and whatever wisdom that Xatu was pondering was lost on the tiny blue bird. Galvantula was still close by still trying to do whatever it could in the sand. In some respects, it looked like he was trying to make a burrow to take a nap himself. Spewpa, however, much to Tristen’s disdain wanted nothing to do with the sun and the skies above, preferring to hide out under a nearby umbrella. Tristen couldn’t help but to sigh, refusing to acknowledge Spewpa’s sour attitude and refused to allow the bug to ruin any of the other Pokémon’s fun.

Tristen then perked up, feeling something in the air just then. A weird electric field in the air. He started to look around, then looked back towards the umbrella, seeing a bird eyeing the bug. It wasn’t a Kilowattrell like what Matteo had, but it was probably a earlier state? Either way, it gave Tristen a surge of adrenaline out of pure shock. His and Fela’s science project was in jeopardy. “Oh no…XATU!” Tristen shouted. “That bird! Night Shade attack! Spewpa, get out of there!” Tristen could have went with a stronger attack, but at the moment, this was nothing more than to scare off the bird from coming after Spewpa. Xatu looked over towards the hungry bird and as its eyes lit up, ethereal power came forth to bombard the bird looking for lunch. The attack call got the attention of Dragonite and Galvantula, who sprung up and started back towards where Tristen and the others were, wondering what was going on. Wimpod stayed back for the moment, however, watching from a distance. He wasn’t going to get involved if he could help it.

Xatu stared at the Wattrell with its unflinching gaze, not bothered by the likes of the Wattrell’s protest. He had dealt with worse than this Wattrell before. It wasn’t going to be intimidated. Then again, Xatu wasn’t one to show intimidation. When the Wattrell retreated, Tristen made his way forward. “Thanks, Xatu…” Tristen said, sighing in relief. Tristen walked over towards Spewpa who apparently hadn’t moved. “Oh, come on, Spewpa. Do you not have any sense of self-preservation? You nearly became lunch to something else. Again.” Tristen said to the bug. “I think you need to stay close by.” He then said, reaching up to grab the Spewpa and take it out from its designated spot to sleep. “Honestly, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Dragonite walked over as did Galvantula to see if everything is alright. “Everything is fine, guys. Had to scare a bird off from eating Spewpa-“

Tristen then perked up, his tail shooting straight up. He started to feel more electricity in the air. He started to look around, feeling it as if it was in a greater concentration than from one lone Wattrell. “WIIIPAAA!” Wimpod shouted, blazing a trail across the sand, kicking up sand in its wake until it dove under the picnic table Tristen set up. He then saw the flock of Wattrell coming towards them. The first one apparently went to go get friends. “Oh man…” Tristen said. This was not how he expected this day to go. He looked at his team and nearly sucked his teeth. Rookidee wasn’t going to be able to take on all of these birds any more than Wimpod was. While Tristen gave them all credit for not being all that strong, Xatu wasn’t going to last long if they made a concerted effort, he wasn’t sure just how susceptible they were to electricity themselves so Galvantula was debatable as if he was going to be able to do much. That only left Dragonite to once again do most of the heavy lifting because obviously Spewpa was not going to be able to do much in the grand scheme of things.

“Galvantula.” He said, sitting Spewpa on the back of Galvantula. “Go protect Wimpod and Spewpa. Rookidee, go with him.” With a glance at Spewpa he made a sigh. “And if Spewpa does anything stupid, do what it takes to make sure that he doesn’t go anywhere. If you got to use Sticky Web, do it.” The spider glanced back at the Spewpa for a moment then started to carry the tiny bug off towards Wimpod. “Dragonite, Xatu, get ready.” Tristen then told the two. The two nodded and started to get ready to face off with the various angry birds on their way. “Dragonite! Flamethrower! Xatu! Use Psychic!” he then called out. Once the birds got close, Dragonite unleashed a powerful plume of fire up towards the birds, Xatu following up with a psychic blast to take out any birds that might dodge in the scramble. The birds were up for a fight, Tristen had to show it was a massive mistake on their part.

Dragonite winced as the electrical attacks came down from the tiny birds. Though while Dragonite was weathering it pretty well despite their collective efforts, Xatu wasn’t as much, having no such resistances to actually take it. Xatu ended up getting fried by the collective Thundershocks. “Dragonite! Keep up the Flamethrower!” Tristen commanded. “Xatu, are you alright!?”

“Xatu…” Xatu said, wincing quite a lot. That was a great deal of damage for a collective bunch of birds. Tristen had no idea this is what he would have been dealing with the entire time out at this beach. This was still salvageable, but Tristen would be lying if he said he didn’t wish that he was better prepared for something like this. The Manetric hybrid was completely caught off guard; he was hoping that the Wattrell that came by initially would have taken the hint that any Pokémon in his care was off limits. But unfortunately, the birds was going to refuse to be denied a meal, let alone be denied vengeance. “Alright, Xatu! Try Confuse Ray!” he then shouted. Best case scenario, he could get the birds to fight amongst themselves in their confusion. Worst case, it’d neutralize them long enough to leave them wide open to be taken out of the battle.

Meanwhile, as Tristen tried to fend off the larger swath of what was an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Galvantula perked up as Spewpa decided to run for it off in some random direction. The spider went completely wide-eyed with all of its eyes but before he had any opportunity to actually stop the bug, some of the stray birds started to swoop around and cut him off. Wimpod, still cowering under the table, started to panic as some of the birds landed around the table and started to try to get at Wimpod. The bug curled up into its Defense Curl, leaving the birds to Peck away at its carapace, but the damage was starting to rack up rather quickly. Rookidee tried to scrap with at least one of the birds, but was at a severe disadvantage with its typing and was bound to lose quickly. Meanwhile, Galvantula, being the only one able to do much of anything, but having no guidance as to what to do only could figure to do one thing to take care of all objectives at once. Galvantula tensed up then squealed out, lighting up with electricity and fired off a large Discharge attack in the area. This, unfortunately, had the consequence of frying Rookidee in mid flight as it was trying to fight the Wattrell it was dealing with and electrocuting Wimpod that was under the table getting pecked on by the couple of birds that were on his case. It was also bound to catch Spewpa as well as it was trying to run in its random direction. As far as Galvantula was concerned, if it got the assailing birds off the case, then mission accomplished.

Silence finally came over towards the beach, Tristen stared at the impromptu battlefield a bit dejected. This is…not how he wanted to have an afternoon. “Thanks Xatu. Dragonite.” Tristen said to the two defending Pokémon. As Tristen started to assess the chaos, Galvantula looked around about itself and started to poke at a couple of the birds, finding the electricity they emit rather enticing to gorge himself on. But then started to realize what he had done. The spider looked around, Rookidee had been caught up in the electrical attack, along with the ones that he was trying to fend off. Wimpod, who was originally defense curled up under the table as the birds tried to breach whatever ‘protection’ he had was also electrocuted nearby the Wattrell that was assailing him. The only Pokémon that was left standing was Spewpa who had shielded itself in the desperation onslaught. Galvantula would then spit out a sticky web to ensnare Spewpa and drag the bug back to the spider. The fact that Spewpa tried to run away wasn’t lost on the Galvantula.

Tristen would then make his way over towards Galvantula, seeing the spider try to reel in Spewpa, the boy sighing then saw Wimpod and Rookidee on the ground. “I guess we’ll have lunch at the Pokémon center over there then…” Tristen said to the rest of the Pokémon.

“Arro.” Dragonite spoke up. Tristen would end up trying to clean up the area as much as he could then made his way back to the Pokémon center. Spewpa getting dragged by Galvantula, rather if the bug liked it or not.

“More like I have a temperamental bug Pokémon that lately has a bad habit of not looking out for itself when I was trying to get lunch ready for it and the other Pokémon and a Wattrell wanted to have it for lunch.” Tristen said, pointing out to the ensnared Spewpa in Galvantulas webbing. “And when I scared that one off, it came back with friends. Fought them all off, but…” Tristen held up the two Pokeballs with WImpod and Rookidee in it. “Had a bad case of friendly fire in the process. Xatu over here kinda got shocked by some of the Wattrell too. Do you think you can help us? Xatu, come on over here and lets let them give you a look over too, okay?”

“Xatu.” The bird replied. Tristen held out his Pokeball and recalled the bird back to the ball, then proceeded to hand over the three Pokeballs to the Pokémon center attendant.